In January 2015, I received a crisis call from a concerned dad, Dave Shepherd, who is a teacher, football and track coach at nationally acclaimed St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He reported that his son, David, a champion pole vaulter, was in bed with sciatica, and was giving up on his last semester track season. He described his son as feeling hopeless and depressed. He asked if I could help him. I agreed to speak with him via SKYPE.

From January until May, David and I skyped and did phone work focusing on mental conditioning to build mental strength, yoga to help relieve stress and healing life wounds. David developed a deeper core strength using yoga breath work and asanas, discovered the power of Emotional Freedom Technique and Hypnotherapy, to name a few. He learned the value of mental training and the impact it has on performance.

With the help of medical treatments, physical therapy, acupuncture and our work together, David broke UCF records and traveled to NCAA National Conference in May 2015, his life-long dream.

As he bids farewell to a successful college career, he hopes to prepare for a professional career and plans to enter EMT and firefighter training in 2016.